The Ship Model Forum

You can find a how-to on stretched sprue here: [url]http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37536[/url]

Plank-on-bulkhead wooden ships! Man, that sounds really formidable. You may be fortunate to have been sidetracked.

Good luck with your project.

George

Thanks George. I've located the supplies needed and am strongly inclined to go with your method (the other option involves .008" - .2 mm - brass wire). I've never stretched sprue but I see that is a useful skill to learn; if I am not successful will go with Evergreen strips.

This Frank Knox is my second build. My first was a 1/700 Tamiya Indianapolis and I-58 Japanese sub. This is all a diversion from my original plan to build plank-on-bulkhead wood ships! My stepdaughter bought me the Tamiya last Christmas and I've been sidetracked ever since. See attached - thanks for the friendly help!

[attachment=0]WithBase_Indianapolis_and_Sub158_Medrez.jpg[/attachment]

Hm, it was a long time ago, but I believe I got them from the local hobby store. Any [url]http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/[/url] reseller would have them.
For the funnel, the size of the square cross section was .4mm. The diameter of the rail itself was .5mm. Kind of out of scale but it was my first. On the railing of the bulkheads, which came later and I was getting the hang of, I went with smaller size stock which I made myself from stretched sprue.

For what it is worth, on my next project, the Varyag, I dispensed with the square cross section stock and did it all with round cross section stretched sprue. I doubt it makes much difference to the overall effect.

Happy modelling and show us your work.

George

George, can you tell me where you bought the rectangular plastic rods you used for the railings, and what size they were? I would like to use this method on my 1/350 scale Dragon Frank Knox.

That's a great tip. Thanks!

Why bother?
Well, I could not for the life of me make decent handrails from PE parts or wire. Too difficult to give it a smooth curvature with no kinks and too delicate for the inevitable knock that would occur during along build (clumsy me). So I tried to figure out a way to do them out of stretched sprue.

I thought I should share the build sequence for anyone who wishes use it, suggest improvements or alternatives. Over scale issues notwithstanding, sprue took a smooth curvature easily and could handle rough treatment throughout the build.

[attachment=1]funnel_sequence3.jpg[/attachment]

Step 1: Drill a lot of holes
Step 2: Cut lengths of plastic rod or streched sprue and stick them in the holes. Fit does not need to be tight, or you will bend the fragile rod pushing it through. I used rod of rectangular cross-section.
Step 3: Apply glue to the base of the rods from the inside. Capillary action will do its best to ensure that no glue runs on the outside surface of the funnel. The glue also tends to fill the gaps.
Step 4: Once dry, cut the lengths of the rods on the outside to a uniform height. I actually used a small piece of plastic of the required thickness, drilled a hole through it, and applied over each rod, so that the rod went through the hole, and then I cut any excess.
Step 5: Start glueing a piece of stretched sprue around the funnel. I glued the rail on the first two rods and, once settled, I took it around all the way to the other end and glued the rest of them.
Step 6: I used rods of rectangular rather than circular cross section, placing the long dimension in a vertcal orientation. In this pic you can see some of them misaligned. I corrected that by filing parallel to the handrail.
Pics 7,8: Views from various angles.
Pic 9: The painted funnel.

Kind of cumbersome, but once I got the hang of it, I dressed the rest of the ship with handrails. Much easier to do on flat bulkheads.

[attachment=0]P9160002.JPEG[/attachment]

Happy modelling everyone